A system and method provides active inheritance on memory writes such that entities issuing later writes ensure that the effects of earlier writes to the same memory block will be seen. A write chain is preferably formed by storing information and state in miss address file (MAF) entries maintained by the entities. The write chain links the entities requesting write access to the memory block. When the desired memory block becomes available, the information and state stored at the MAF entries is then utilized by each entity in ensuring that all earlier writes are complete before its write is allowed to complete.